One of my fears regarding the stimulus is that small applicants will be left out of the process. This appears to have happened in Ohio, which is one of the largest states and also one of the most demographically and geographically diverse.
Ohio’s governor faced Alaska’s dilemma in miniature: a large number of worthy projects over a large land area with not enough cash to fund them all.
Unfortunately, Ohio chose simply to recommend (.pdf from Baller Herbst Law Group) most of the projects without ranking them. This is not too helpful to the NTIA.
Projects left off the list include an $800,000 project by father-son WISP JB Nets.
On the other hand, a small $30,000 public library project, Coschocton Public Library, did make it to the list and deserves to be funded.
Ohio has several impressive organizations. Case Western Reserve University submitted several ambitious, worthy applications and they are on the list.
OneCommunity submitted two bids totalling about $180 million ($80 million loan). This impressive outfit is likely to get funding for its non-profit open fiber network covering 58 counties.
A large number of wireless last mile projects were recommended, including Utopian Wireless’ submission.
Tags: ohio, one community, wireless